Once In A Blue Moon
by beege
Summary: When a blue moon causes dramatic changes in the life of Kaolla Su the other inhabitants of the Hinata Inn find their own lives will never be the same.
1. Chrysalis

Once In A Blue Moon

Chapter 1 - Chrysalis

In a small jungle which was contained within a much smaller room there sat a young girl. If anyone who knew this girl well had been able to see her just then they would have been more than a little worried. By her very nature she was energetic, lively, exuberant and generally unstoppable. Now, however, she sat still and silent, deep in thought, her expression sombre. The only clues to the source of her serious demeanour were the various books and magazines scattered around her, interspersed with a handful of much older scrolls inscribed with strange hieroglyphics. The books were a mix of thick, heavy works on astronomy and rather less credible looking works on astrology. The magazines encompassed a variety of scientific journals and were mostly opened to articles about astronomical phenomena or the moon. One in particular, with the title: 'Transient Lunar Phenomena: Fact or Fiction?' had been heavily highlighted with red marker. Kaolla Su - for it was she who sat at the centre of the scattering of mismatched texts - clearly had something on her mind. Eventually she sighed and looked up from her scrutiny of the assorted books and magazines to rub her temples and gaze at the ceiling in frustration. This too was out of character for Su. Normally she was hyperkinetic, apparently possessed of virtually unlimited energy. Now she moved with a lassitude that would have been more appropriate for someone half a dozen times her age. Still moving slowly, Su stood and took a few steps over to the edge of the small river that somehow ran through the jungle that occupied her room. Looking down into it she checked the time in a waterproofed digital clock set into one of the stones in the riverbed and was unsurprised to see that it was past three in the morning.

"Su does not think this is a good thing," she quietly declared to herself, before a faint smile dragged the corners of her mouth upwards, "but it doesn't have to be all bad."

It was Shinobu who noticed it first.

"Good morning Su-chan," said Shinobu, looking up from the breakfast she was cooking to greet her friend.

"Good morning Shinobu," Su replied distractedly.

"Do you want me to peel you a . . ." It was at this point that Shinobu's voice trailed off as she realized that Tama, who was paddling around in the sink, had not attracted one iota of interest from Su. Feeling a faint sense of disbelief wash over her, Shinobu looked over towards Su with the kind of calm that comes from being too astonished to react emotionally. Su was sitting at the table peacefully, with a posture that Shinobu could only think of as demure, despite the strangeness of applying such a word to the girl.

"Are you alright Su?" Shinobu asked carefully.

"I'm fine Shinobu. Just a little tired." Su illustrated her statement with a yawn. It was then that Shinobu began to genuinely worry. Normally Su was in motion more or less constantly, running down hallways, leaping up to kick Keitaro or hopping across rooftops. So far as Shinobu knew the only times Su stayed in one place for more than a few minutes were mealtimes, sleep and when she was inventing something. While it wasn't the kind of event that would make her keel over in shock or send her into a fit of hysterics, Su's strange behaviour was beginning to unnerve her. She was used to strange happenings at Hinata Inn, but this was a different kind of strange. So it was with a certain sense of relief that she heard the distinctive soft clacking sound of Motoko's sandals on the Hinata's wooden flooring.

_Motoko will know what to do_ Shinobu told herself as she shooed Tama out the window. Shinobu didn't want the older girl scared off before she could take a look at Su.

"Good morning Motoko-san."

Motoko, in a somewhat introspective mood as she had just come from her morning meditation, simply nodded her acknowledgement, then looked toward Su as she braced herself for the expected leap and embrace. It failed to come. Instead, Su simply looked up and greeted her.

"Hello Motoko-san. Will breakfast be ready soon, Shinobu?"

"Yes Su" she replied nervously.

Like Shinobu, Motoko did not immediately react to Su's behaviour. Perhaps because, in a way, Su was acting normally. It took the mind a couple of seconds to remember that for Su normal behaviour was outright bizarre, not calm and collected.

"Ah, how are you feeling Su?"

"I am fine thank you, Motoko-san," came the reply. "Why do you ask?"

All the while, Su remained calmly sitting down.

"Ah, no reason Su-chan. No reason at all."

Motoko slowly backed away from Su and towards Shinobu, all the time feeling rather as though she were walking through a minefield.

"What happened?" she asked Shinobu in a worried whisper while keeping one eye on Su.

"I don't know!" Shinobu replied, keeping her voice equally low. "She's been like this ever since she came down!"

"Um, Shinobu," said Su, unwittingly startling both of them, "I don't mean to be rude, but could you hurry up with breakfast? I'm kinda hungry." Su's statement was punctuated by a low growl that sounded more like the snarl of a wild animal than the complaint of an empty stomach. Shinobu and Motoko stared at Su, or more specifically Su's stomach, in disbelief, causing the girl to blush with embarrassment. While Motoko continued to watch Su out of the corner of her eye Shinobu turned back to her breakfast preparations, motivated by Su's unnerving display of hunger to finish preparing the meal as quickly as possible.

"Breakfast is ready, Su-chan," said Shinobu minutes later, as she carried a tray bearing three bowls of miso soup and a single larger bowl of rice balls over to the table. Before Shinobu and Motoko had even sat down Su's arms shot out and seized hold of the tray, dragging it and all its contents towards her. Before either of the other two girls could so much as blink she had begun to consume the contents of all four bowls simultaneously.

"Auuuuughhhh! Su-chan!"

Su looked up in surprise at Shinobu's exclamation and blinked, her expression suggesting that she realised Shinobu was upset but had no idea why. Her face cleared slightly as she glanced down at her bowl, but there was still a trace of confusion there.

"Sorry Shinobu, but I'm really hungry," Su told her friend before diving back into her meal. Shinobu and Motoko looked on with a steadily growing sense of shared unease as Su continued to inhale her breakfast. Shinobu noticed that despite her speed Su was eating with remarkable neatness, spilling not a single drop of her miso soup. The thought crossed her mind that this had nothing to do with cleanliness but was simply a matter of Su being so hungry that she did not wish to waste a single drop.

"I wish sempai was here," she murmured miserably.

Motoko gave a grudging nod of assent. She was loathe to admit it, but the Hinata's male manager did have a certain knack for solving personal problems. His combination of unrelenting blind optimism, naïve honesty, determination and offbeat wisdom was somehow enough to deal with all kinds of trouble.

"It is unfortunate that he and Narusegawa-san have to go to toudai today. I would like to see what they make of this."

"But what are we going to do!" Shinobu wailed, forgetting to keep her voice down. Motoko immediately shushed her and looked over at Su. Fortunately the foreign girl was so absorbed in her breakfast that she had failed to notice anything amiss.

"I do not believe there is anything we can do for the moment, except to observe Su. I do not sense that she has been possessed by an evil spirit so I cannot say what has caused this change in her behaviour. I will meditate today while the two of you go to school."

Ten minutes later found Shinobu keeping pace with Su as they made their way to the school they attended, after Shinobu had fixed a further meal for herself and Motoko. Shinobu's worried state was escalating as she observed further changes in her friend. Normally, if Su wasn't hopping across the roofs of buildings to get to school she at least ran. Shinobu was accustomed to her running back and forth as Su shot ahead of her before running back to rejoin her friend, circling around her like a butterfly before darting off again to weave in and out of other pedestrians, book bag flying out behind her. Today Su's pace was positively sedate and the girl herself seemed weary. Even as Shinobu shot Su another surreptitious look the girl flung her arms back and let out a huge, jaw dislocating yawn.

The small shrine in Hinata village where Motoko went to meditate was a peaceful, out of the way place. It was for this very reason that the young swordswoman favoured it. She made her way down the gravelled path and entered the temple. Sitting down on a tatami mat in the lotus position, with her blade balanced across her knees, Motoko set about clearing her mind. This was more difficult than it had been in times past, and not just because of her concerns for Su. Motoko would have denied it if confronted with the fact, but Keitaro's presence at the Hinata Inn had become more and more of a distraction to her as time had gone on, though not in the way some of her admirers might have imagined. The assistance he'd given during her crisis of identity had only served to reinforce her growing attachment to him. But experience and discipline prevailed, and Motoko soon settled into the calm, receptive state of mind that meditation required.

She stood on a cold, pale desert, a place without a single sign of life. Hugging herself in an attempt to counteract the unexpected chill Motoko looked around the place in which she found herself. The surface on which she stood was hard, she realized, not soft and sandy. Harsh, angular outcrops of stone were silhouetted on the horizon. It was night time but she could see clearly. Something about the strange nature of the illumination that allowed her to see prompted her to look up and Motoko let out an involuntary gasp at what she saw. High above her, at least from her current perspective, was the earth. _I'm on the moon!_ Motoko realized, even as her mind rebelled against the evidence her senses presented to it. _But why?_ Even as Motoko wondered what the point of this vision was she found herself beginning to rise, or perhaps fall, towards the earth. In the back of the mind she wondered at the fact that she seemed to be having no trouble breathing despite the fact that she was in a vacuum, but visions were not meant to be taken as literal representations of the world. They arose from the subconscious and combined symbology with metaphor to convey their meaning. As she continued to rise Motoko realised that a glowing nimbus of blue light was materialising around her. The light grew steadily brighter until she had to close her eyes to save herself from being blinded. Even with her eyes closed the light still seemed to fill her sight to the point of being painful. In the moment before that pain overwhelmed her and she fell into merciful blackness the blue light was replaced by an image of Su's smiling face.

Su's strange behaviour had continued after she and Shinobu arrived at school. Su had slept straight through her first class, waking only to respond when the teacher called her name at roll call before going straight back to sleep. Had she been any other student Su would have been the recipient of an eraser to the head and a stern lecture, but the first period teacher was a harried and nervous man who decided to treat Su's indolent state as an unexpected blessing. He was not the only teacher who had been driven to distraction by Su's antics in the past and this pattern repeated itself throughout the school day. Su slept through all her classes, undisturbed by teachers who were too relieved she wouldn't be annoying them to worry about anything else. She slept through lunchtime as well, except for a brief period of wakefulness when she devoured the lunch Shinobu had prepared for her along with most of the lunch Shinobu had made for herself. Shinobu was too worried about her friend to notice that her own meal was missing.

Motoko awoke with a splitting headache. Opening her eyes she found that she was lying on the temple floor, sprawled across the tatami mat that she had formerly been sitting on. Her first attempt to rise revealed that she was in no condition to move from her current position, so she resigned herself to staying still for a few minutes while the pain in her head cleared. With nothing else to do in the interim, Motoko's thoughts turned naturally to what she had seen while meditating. The presence of the moon in her vision was not surprising given that Su had been the subject of her meditation and the moon played a prominent role in the young girl's life. But what had it actually meant? Was the change in Su's behaviour somehow connected to the moon? And if so, how? A second attempt to rise revealed that the pain had mostly faded and as Motoko rose to her feet she reflected sourly that visions tended to raise more questions than they answered.

Keitaro was almost delirious with joy that afternoon as he walked home with Naru. They'd travelled to town together, signed up for courses for next year, eaten lunch on the university grounds and now they were walking home while chatting quietly. They'd had a perfectly ordinary, pleasant day. For most people this would hardly be a cause for celebration. For Keitaro, whose life for the last year and a half had been dominated by his passion for Narusegawa and a more or less continuous series of events that seemed calculated to keep them apart, the idea that some degree of calm might be settling over their lives and specifically, their relationship, was a source of considerable joy. If he had known that his current thoughts not only qualified as tempting fate, but that fate had already succumbed to the temptation, Keitaro might have been feeling rather less content than he did as he and Naru walked up the steps that led to Hinata Inn. But ignorance, as the expression goes, is bliss.

In Keitaro's case that bliss would prove to be fairly short lived.

Anyone who knew Shinobu even moderately well would agree that the girl had a nervous temperament. She worried about her family. She worried about school. She worried about Keitaro and the unlikelihood of her feelings for him ever being fulfilled. She just worried. So when she was presented with an additional, significant source of worry beyond her normal concerns Shinobu had rapidly reached a state not too far short of a nervous breakdown. Thus it was that when Keitaro and Naru suddenly greeted her from behind her response was in keeping with her unusually stressed state.

"Hello Shinobu."

"Hi Shinobu-chan."

"Ahhhhhh! Who are-" Shinobu's fright abruptly became embarrassment as she realised that she'd just reacted to Keitaro and Naru as though they were axe wielding maniacs.

"Ah, sorry, you startled me, it's just-"

"Hey Shinobu-chan, calm down. Whatever it is I'm sure it'll be alright."

Keitaro's presence did not always have a calming effect on Shinobu, but his reassurances generally did. There was something undeniable about his optimism and she knew from experience that Keitaro would come through for the people he cared about when it really mattered. The way he'd persuaded her parents to let her stay at the Inn was proof of that.

"Oh sempai it's terrible. Su was behaving so strangely this morning at breakfast and then at school she-"

"What!? Su's sick?"

"What happened to Su-chan?" asked Naru, echoing Keitaro's concern.

"I'm fine, everyone."

The trio spun around suddenly to Su standing calmly behind them, just a few steps from the top of the stairs that led up to the Hinata Inn, and reacted in the way that people everywhere do when they are discussing someone and that person catches them at it.

"Oh, um, hello Su."

"Su-chan! We were just talking about - urk!" Keitaro's declaration was suddenly cut off by Naru's elbow impacting the side of his ribcage. A small smile flitted across Su's face at this, but that was all.

"You don't have to worry. I'm fine. Bye, Keitaro-kun."

And with that Su slipped past them and continued on towards the Inn. Naru and Keitaro's reactions were similar to those of Shinobu and Motoko that morning. They stared after Su in disbelief, intensely aware that something was wrong, but the nature of the wrongness itself was so unusual that it took several seconds for them to realise what it was.

"She didn't attack me," Keitaro mumbled in disbelief.

"No mecha-tamas anywhere," murmured Naru, who was equally stunned.

"She's been like this all day!" Shinobu wailed pitifully, the stress of the last eight hours finally snapping her self control.

"All she does is eat and sleep and walk around a bit and I don't know whyyyyyyyyy!"

With that Shinobu threw herself at Keitaro, wrapped her arms around his torso and began to sob into his chest. Keitaro automatically threw up his arms in panic but when Naru failed to immediately sock him for alleged perverted acts his nurturing instincts kicked in and he began to pat her back. While Keitaro was murmuring meaningless platitudes to the effect that they would find out what was going on and everything would be okay Naru was gazing worriedly in the direction Su had gone and chewing pensively on her lower lip. What on earth had happened to Su, she wondered. Wait a minute . . . Keitaro-kun!!?? And then she noticed Shinobu's position.

"YOU PERVERT!" cried Naru, spinning around and socking Keitaro in the face, sending him flying out of Shinobu's grasp to go rolling all the way down the stairs. Shinobu just stood there blinking as Naru strode straight past her and into the Hinata Inn.

"What did you do now, Urashima?"

Motoko sounded as though she couldn't decide whether to be amused or angry, Keitaro thought, as he carefully raised himself off the ground and looked up at her.

"Ooooooooohhhhh, my head," Keitaro muttered, before responding to the question. "Nothing, Motoko-chan, I swear. I was just . . ."

Keitaro trailed off as he recalled the events that had led up to his most recent bashing.

"Motoko-chan, Shinobu was saying something about Su being sick. Do you know what she was talking about?"

Motoko's expression shifted from amusement to concern in an instant.

"I must speak to you and Naru-san about that. I am not sure what, but something is gravely wrong with Su."

Later, Keitaro would look back and think that, as far as he was concerned, that was where it had all started.

"Okay, so what do we do about this?"

Keitaro sighed to himself. Kitsune's question summed up the problem quite neatly. They could throw theories around and dissect Motoko's vision and Shinobu's account of Su's behaviour until the early hours of the morning without getting any closer to the truth - or a viable course of action. He, Naru, Shinobu, Motoko and Kitsune were all in the Hinata Inn's attic, discussing Su's bizarre (for her) behaviour. The reason for Shinobu and Motoko's strange behaviour had become apparent after he'd gotten back to the Inn. Sitting across from Su at dinner and watching her behave like a modest young woman, save for her bouts of energy when food was placed in front of her, had been an unnerving experience. Even Kitsune - who'd still been asleep when Su's new behaviour had first manifested - had looked uneasy. Collective concern had brought them all up here after Su had gone to sleep (though why Motoko had wanted them to meet in the attic Keitaro had no idea) and now they were trying to figure out what was going on. The problem was, Keitaro reflected ruefully, they really had no idea where to start.

"We can't just sit around and do nothing," Naru muttered when it became apparent that no-one had a reply to Kitsune's question.

"Um, but, what can we do?" Shinobu asked hesitantly. "We don't know what's going on."

Kitsune snorted.

"And it's not like we can ask her. She's acting like this is no big deal and when Motoko mentioned seeing a doctor . . ." she trailed off and the rest of them winced slightly. Su's response to that statement had been a disturbingly cold declaration that there was nothing wrong with her and that they shouldn't worry. Perhaps they were imagining the implication that she wouldn't be happy about them looking into whatever was happening to her, Keitaro thought, and perhaps not.

But Kitsune's words had sparked the glimmer of an idea in Keitaro's mind and he began to smile as he realised that the situation wasn't as hopeless as it looked.

"No," Keitaro said slowly "but there's someone we can ask."

Keitaro tried and failed to quell his nervous stomach. Unless they were prepared to raid Su's room - not an enterprise to be contemplated by anyone who valued their health, considering the 'security mechanisms' she'd put in place - this was probably their only chance at finding out what was wrong with Su. Naru had insisted on coming and Motoko had wanted to as well, but Keitaro had decided that too many people would be overwhelming. He'd been unable to dissuade Shinobu, though he didn't like having to wait to do this until after her school day finished. Her agitation over Su had only gotten worse after a whole night spent worrying about the situation and a second day of Su's new behaviour that had been a repeat of the first. So he found himself flanked by Naru and Shinobu as he knocked on the door to Mutsumi's apartment.

"Kei-kun, what a nice surprise!"

"Hello Mutsumi-chan."

Keitaro couldn't help but smile a little in response to Mutsumi's perpetually cheery demeanour. Just being around her was usually enough to brighten his mood and even today was no exception.

"And you've brought friends!" Mutsumi exclaimed as she noticed Naru and Shinobu. "Come in, come in. Would you like a slice of watermelon? I have plenty to spare."

This was evidently the truth, Keitaro saw, as Mutsumi gestured to the large pile of watermelons piled up against one wall of the room.

"Ah, no thank you Mutsumi-chan. The thing is, we're actually here to ask you about something. It's kind of important."

"Gosh Kei-kun, you'd better sit down and tell me about it."

After taking a seat across from Mutsumi at the konatsu that occupied pride of place in the centre of the room, with Naru and Shinobu sitting to either side, Keitaro steeled himself for a conversation that he did not expect to be easy.

"Um, do you remember when I stayed here while Grandmother was having Hinata repaired Mutsumi-chan?"

"Of course!" Mutsumi exclaimed, giggling slightly at the memory "you came into the shower and because Amara-san had it remodelled-"

Keitaro decided to interrupt before Naru blew a fuse.

'Yes, well, anyway I was thinking that since you and Amara-san were obviously such good friends perhaps you might know how to contact her?"

"Hmmm." Mustumi knuckled both hands under her chin in an unintentionally cute pose as she frowned with concentration.

"Ah! I remember now! She left me her phone number in case I ever wanted to talk and I wrote it down in a very important place!"

With that Mutsumi rose and turned to walk over to the pile of watermelons Keitaro had noticed on entering the apartment. When she began to dig through them he started to wonder what was going on.

"What's she doing?" Naru muttered out of the corner of her mouth as Mutsumi burrowed deeper into her collection of watermelons.

"Ah, Mutsumi-chan, what are-"

"Here it is!" Mutsumi cried triumphantly as she rose and held up a watermelon that at first glance did not look any different from any of the others. Keitaro frowned, then blinked in surprise as he noticed something odd about the watermelon Mutsumi was holding - there appeared to be numbers carved into its surface.

"You carved her phone number into a watermelon!?" Naru asked in disbelief before Keitaro could say anything.

"Oh yes," Mutsumi replied happily, "I write down all my reminders this way to be sure I see them. I always do, eventually. When Amara-san told me her phone number I didn't have a piece of paper so I wrote it down like this."

With that she handed the watermelon to Keitaro, who held it up to take a good look at it. With a slowly mounting sense of disbelief he saw that the odd carvings were indeed numbers and they did seem to form a telephone number, albeit one that was eighteen digits long.

"Ah, Mutsumi-chan, this is a very long telephone number."

"Oh yes," Mutsumi agreed, "it is. Amara-san said that the telecommunication system in Molmol is very complicated."

"I see. Well, thank you, Mutsumi-chan. You've been very helpful."

"You're welcome Kei-kun."

As he picked up Haruka's phone for the eighth time that evening Keitaro reflected that he should never have expected this to be easy. Haruka didn't seem to mind the healthy phone bill he was undoubtedly racking up - she'd been positively encouraging, by her standards, once he'd explained the situation and his unwillingness to alert Su to their concerns - but after more than an hour with her phone pressed to his ear he was no closer to contacting Amara than when he'd started. It had become clear to him that 'complicated' was not the only word which could be used to describe Molmol's communication system. Nonexistent was equally applicable. The fact that half the operators he encountered didn't seem to know that the country even existed didn't help either.

"Ah hello, yes it's me again, I'm not - what? You have? Really? That's fantastic! Thanks!"

With a sigh of relief Keitaro listened as a complicated series of clicks and buzzes signalled that he was finally being transferred into the Molmol telecommunication system.

"You have reached the Molmol Information Centre. How may we be of service?"

The voice spoke good Japanese, though the foreign accent was easy to detect.

"Um, well, I need to speak to Amara Su."

"I beg your pardon?" The voice at the far end of the line conveyed a mix of disbelief and faint contempt.

"I need to speak to Amara Su," Keitaro repeated, before a sudden realisation struck him. "Oh wait a minute, she's a princess isn't she? So I guess I need to speak to Princess Amara Su. Heheheh."

"I see. And who, precisely, should I say is calling?" The voice was now heavy with contempt. Keitaro winced as he realised how he must have sounded. _You idiot!_ He berated himself. _They don't let just anyone talk to royalty!_ And, he realised with a sinking sensation, there was now way for him to prove that he needed to speak with Amara.

"Urashima Keitaro," he replied wearily, already wondering if there was anything else that he could do to help the Hinata Inn's youngest resident.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My name is Urashima Keitaro," Keitaro repeated. "Look I realise this sounds strange but I really -"

"What do you do?" The question sounded odd and Keitaro realised that the tone of the operator he was speaking to had changed.

"I'm the manager of Hinata Inn," he said slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"I see. Please hold while I transfer your call."

This statement was followed by another series of clicks and buzzes and Keitaro held the receiver away from him and looked at it in amazement before an idea occurred to him and he felt like smacking himself in the head. Su was royalty. It followed that whatever government Molmol had would aware of her presence in Japan and presumably know where she was staying. So when he'd identified himself as the Hinata Inn's manager . . .

"Hello?"

Keitaro couldn't restrain a smile of relief. The voice on the other end of the line was now definitely Amara Su's. _Perhaps now I'll get some answers_, he thought.

"Hello, Amara-san? It's Urashima Keitaro. I'm -"

"I remember who you are," Amara informed him with a trace of wry amusement, "but why have you called?"

Keitaro paused for a moment, before deciding to take the direct route. Su might be fine but if she wasn't there was no point wasting time.

"I'm worried about Su," he told her. "Actually, we all are. She's been behaving really strangely lately and -"

"What do you mean?" Amara demanded sharply, cutting him off, "what has she done."

"It might sound strange, but it's what she's not doing that's worrying. She seems to spend all her time either sleeping or eating and she's barely said two words to any of us since this started."

Amara was silent for several seconds before responding.

"Do not do anything." She told him, her voice hard. "This is extremely important. You have to treat her as though there is nothing unusual about this, do you understand?"

"But what's -"

"Don't ask questions!" Amara told him, her voice sharp with anger and fear. "Do you understand what I just said?"

"Yes but -"

"No buts! I'll explain when I get there."

"You'll explain when you get here?" Keitaro exclaimed. This conversation was not going the way he'd expected it to. Amara sounded on the verge of panic. "What's going on, Amara-san?" he asked worriedly, the small, tight ball of fear that had formed in his stomach growing larger by the second.

"Oh Urashima-san, it's very complicated," Amara told him, sounding more tired than scared now. "Suffice it to say that Su has made a decision about her life. She shouldn't go through with it without having a family member around."

And with that she hung up, leaving Keitaro to stare at the receiver with a mixture of confusion and concern while wishing that he knew what the hell was happening.

Haruka came in a couple of minutes later to find her nephew staring blankly at the wall with an expression of confusion on his face.

"No luck, huh?" she asked. Keitaro didn't respond.

"Oi!" she exclaimed, poking him in the shoulder to get his attention. "What happened?"

"Sorry Aunt Haruka, I was thinking," Keitaro told her, taking the thump she gave him for his mode of address without even noticing it.

"It was kinda weird. Amara-san sounded really worried, but she said we should pretend as though nothing unusual is happening. She said she was coming here, too," he added abstractedly after a couple of seconds, his attention already returning to his own thoughts. Haruka frowned.

"Did she say why?"

"No" Keitaro replied absently. "She hung up before I could ask."

"Huh." Haruka's bland expression never changed, but her instincts warned her that trouble of some kind was looming if Su's behaviour was enough to make Amara drop everything and come to Japan the moment she heard about it. Judging by his expression the same thought had crossed Keitaro's mind. _It looks like things are about to get interesting for you again, nephew_.

Keitaro threw down the maths textbook in disgust. Concentrating on his studies was proving even more difficult than usual. As far as he was concerned the day had been stressful enough already, and sitting through another strained meal while everyone carefully pretended not to pay any attention to Su hadn't helped his mood. The account he'd given the girls of his unhelpful conversation with Amara while Su had been in her room, presumably asleep, hadn't helped matters any. All it had done was give the girls more fuel for their speculations and concerns without resolving anything. _No wonder I can't concentrate_, Keitaro told himself. With a sigh he got up and crossed over to the door to his room. He was just reaching out to open it when it slid open from the other side - to reveal a slightly startled Su standing on the other side.

For a moment the two of them stood there blinking at each other in surprise, before Su regained her composure.

"Hello Keitaro-kun" she said with a soft smile. "May I come in?"

"Ah, er, well, of course you can Su-chan! Come in!" Keitaro exclaimed with false heartiness after his initial hesitation. He winced internally at how clumsily he was hiding his discomfort. Fortunately Su didn't seem to notice. Her smile widening slightly, she stepped into Keitaro's room as he hastily stepped aside to make room for her.

"How are you, Keitaro-kun?" she asked quietly, as she gracefully settled herself on the floor opposite his futon, her skirt pooling around her on the floor. It hadn't registered with Keitaro until that moment that she was wearing the skirt and loose top that he supposed were traditional Molmolese garb. Feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the situation, Keitaro awkwardly sat down across from her.

"Um, I'm fine, I guess, Su-chan," he answered carefully. _Act normal_, Keitaro told himself. _Act normal, act normal, act normal . . ._

"I know you're worried about me," Su told him, giving an almost-giggle at his expression of shock, "but it's okay, really. I'm fine, Keitaro-kun. Really," she added, seeing the scepticism in his face.

"Ah . . . it's just . . . you have been acting a little strangely Su-chan."

Su gave another almost-giggle before answering.

"I know Keitaro-kun, but it's no big deal. I just wanted to reassure you," she continued after a moment's pause, a faint blush darkening her cheeks, "so I guess I'll be going now." With that Su stood, rising, Keitaro suddenly noticed, with a casual grace that was somehow appropriate to her despite the strangeness of seeing Su move in such a relaxed way. Keitaro was just turning back to his discarded maths textbook when he was diverted by an exclamation that sounded as though it didn't know whether it was angry, confused or worried.

"What are you doing here!? Keitaro you pervert, what are you doing!?"

Naru's voice, Keitaro realised with a sinking sensation. _I really hope she doesn't get the wrong idea!_ he thought. _Just because Su-chan was alone with me in my room doesn't mean anything happened!_ But before he could intervene Su responded to Naru's question.

"I was just paying Keitaro-kun a visit, Naru-san. I don't see why you should be angry."

"I'm not angry!" Naru denied. "I just . . . you shouldn't be alone with him! It's not safe."

"I'm sure I'm completely safe with Keitaro-kun," Su replied calmly, the scepticism in her tone suggesting that she thought Naru was being a little foolish. Naru flushed at the subtle criticism but halted before responding, unsure of how to deal with this new Su. Su stepped past Naru and out into the corridor while the older girl was still opening and closing her mouth.

"Bye Keitaro-kun," she called out as she walked away down the corridor.

"What was all that about?" Naru demanded of Keitaro as soon as Su had left.

"Huh?" Keitaro, still trying to get his head around this new quirk in Su's behaviour, was for once too distracted to pay much attention to Naru.

"What's going on!?" Naru yelled, venting her frustration at the situation on her preferred target.

"What are you talking about, Naru-san?" Keitaro asked, honestly confused.

"What are you doing being alone with Su when she's like this!?"

"But . . . she came here. I couldn't turn her away!"

Naru gave a doubtful snort and stood there for a second looking him over with a gaze that made Keitaro shrivel up inside, before turning on her heel and storming out of his room. Keitaro sighed and let himself fall backwards onto his futon in exhaustion. Confrontations with Naru always left him feeling like he'd run a marathon.

_What was that about?_ He wondered as he lay there staring up at the ceiling in thought. _Why was Naru so angry at me just for talking to Su? Could she really have been jeal - nah, of course not. For that matter, what was up with Su. It's weird - she was behaving a bit like Shinobu, but without all the blushing and stammering._

With a shake of his head Keitaro turned his thoughts away from such incomprehensible matters and dragged himself reluctantly back to his studies.

The rest of the week passed in much the same way. Su continued to speak in monosyllables to everyone but Keitaro, much to Naru's annoyance and Shinobu's agitation, while spending the maximum possible amount of time asleep and seemingly consuming her own body weight in food daily. The Hinata Inn's tenants - plus a manager who was rather more nervous than usual - had managed to adapt somewhat to the new situation, but the sense of equilibrium they'd forged was uneasy at best. Privately, all of them were aware in some level that this was no more than the calm before the storm.

_That little 'incident' between Su and Naru yesterday didn't help any, either._ Kitsune let out a long, weary sigh as she paused at the summit of the long flight of steps that led to the Hinata Inn after a long, frustrating day of job hunting. It was a good vantage point for viewing the Inn in its entirety and Kitsune took advantage of her momentary fatigue to regard the Inn as a whole, trying to convince herself that the weariness washing over her was the result of nothing but the climb and the gloomy dusk. Unfortunately, the person Kitsune had the most difficulty lying to was herself. _Yeah right,_ she thought with a mental snort of self-derision,_ and knowing that Su's in there somewhere and getting weirder by the day has nothing to do with it_.

The previous day had seen the most dramatic instance yet of Su's aberrant behaviour. Shinobu had been on her way up the stairs to her room with a basket full of freshly laundered clothes. Nothing unusual about that, Kitsune reflected, since Shinobu typically washed a week's worth of used clothing after coming home from school on Friday. Keitaro, coming down the stairs with his nose buried in a textbook, had completely failed to see Shinobu, who couldn't see him over the pile of laundry she was carrying. Nothing unusual about that either. Indeed such situations occurred so often at the Hinata Inn that Kitsune sometimes wondered if the deity of amusing mishaps with sexual overtones had taken a special interest in one Keitaro Urashima. Kitsune had positioned herself to watch the impending carnage with a pleasant sense of anticipation. After the disturbances of the past week it was nice to know that some things remained constant. A smirk had grown on Kitsune's face when, just as she'd predicted to herself, Keitaro walked head first into Shinobu and the two of them went tumbling down the stairs in a tangle of arms and limbs. Because he'd been above her when they'd collided Keitaro had landed on top of Shinobu, though fortunately her landing had been cushioned by the laundry which had somehow wound up underneath here. It was at this point that Naru had entered from the living room, having heard both Keitaro and Shinobu's exclamations and the crash of their landing, to find Keitaro lying on top of Shinobu in a pile of her clothing, a pair of her teddy bear print knickers hanging from his spectacles. Naru's response had been predictable. What hadn't been predictable was the mecha-tama that had come sweeping down the stairs just in time to catch Naru's leg (she'd been going for a Naru-kick) between its flippers. Then Su had appeared at the top of the stairs with remote control in hand and told Naru in a glacially cold voice that she should 'leave poor Keitaro-kun alone.' Kitsune suspected that Naru would have immediately gone after their beleaguered manager for 'corrupting' Su if she hadn't been hanging upside down from one ankle at the time. Another button push from Su had sent the mecha-tama outside, Naru still held in it's grasp, and then Su had turned her attention to Keitaro and Shinobu.

"Do you think you could both get up now?" she'd asked them coolly.

Keitaro and Shinobu, who'd been staring up at her in shock, had scrambled clumsily to their feet in response. Su's expression had softened faintly as she turned to look straight at Keitaro.

"Glasses, Keitaro-kun," she'd told him, a trace of amusement colouring her tone.

"What - ah!" Keitaro had exclaimed as his hand encountered the garment whose placement had so infuriated Naru. With a fervent shaking of his head Keitaro dislodged the pair of knickers and immediately scuttled backwards, away from the pile of spilled undergarments. Su had smiled briefly at Keitaro, given Shinobu a last sharp look and then looked down at the remote control in her hand and nodded with satisfaction.

"That should be far enough," she'd commented before pressing a button on the remote control.

A subdued Naru had come through the doorway nearly half an hour later - the mecha-tama had carried her that far from the Hinata Inn.

"I'm home!" Kitsune called out as she walked through the Inn's front door.

Deafening silence greeted her pronouncement.

"Weird," Kitsune muttered to herself. "Where is everyone?"

She made her way through the Hinata Inn's front rooms without finding anyone before cocking her head as a whisper of conversation reached her from upstairs.

" . . . a good idea?"

Fighting a growing feeling of trepidation, Kitsune made her way towards the stairs that led up to the Inn's higher levels. The murmuring voices got louder as she mounted the stairs and she was able to make out scraps of conversation.

"- where she is."

"- don't know but -"

"- panic."

Kitsune came across the others as she walked down the hallway and rounded the corner. Keitaro and the other girls, except for Su, were clustered together in a worried looking group outside the door to Su's room.

_I guess I shouldn't really be surprised_ Kitsune thought with a sinking feeling.

"Hey guys!" she exclaimed, putting on her best cheerful mask.

"Have you been holding secret meetings without me? I'm hurt that you . . ." Kitsune trailed off as she noticed their expressions and realised her attempt at humour had fallen flat.

"Alright, what's up?"

There was an awkward pause before Motoko spoke.

"Su has gone missing," she told Kitsune bluntly.

A young girl with pale hair and dark skin picked her way through the forest that occupied the land behind the Hinata Inn, her loose skirt flowing around her legs. As she slipped through the trees, changing direction seemingly at random, she hummed a strange, haunting melody to herself.

"Not long now," she murmured, stopping for a moment to glance up at the darkening sky before moving on.

Green eyes bright, humming contentedly to herself, Kaolla Su continued on her way.

"Missing?" Kitsune repeated woodenly, feeling sure she'd misheard Motoko. The other girl nodded gravely in response.

"Yes," she affirmed, "missing. Su left us a note attached to the door of her room, but it does not specify where she has gone or why she left."

Kitsune stared at her, fighting a sense of unreality.

"Oh man."

"Well I still think we should go in," Keitaro stated, apparently continuing the discussion that had been in progress when Kitsune had interrupted, "it's our only chance to find out what's going on."

Naru snorted.

"Yeah, but who knows what Su left in there to protect her privacy? You know how she's been lately!"

"I, I don't think Su would do anything to hurt us" Shinobu murmured.

"I agree," said Motoko "though that does not preclude the possibility that she has put measures in place to . . . discourage us."

Keitaro shrugged.

"Maybe, but we can't just stand around doing nothing. I'm going in."

Naru looked unhappy, but Kitsune wasn't surprised. It was Keitaro's nature to worry about people - and the Inn's tenants were at the top of his list of who to worry about. She watched with the others as Keitaro squared his shoulders, grasped hold of the door to Su's room, and slid it open.

Nothing happened.

Keitaro paused for a second, then took a cautious step into the room.

Nothing happened.

"So far so good," he muttered under his breath.

When Keitaro had taken several more cautious steps into the room without suffering from an unfortunate accident the other girls began to filter in after him. Su's room was the same impossibly large jungle that Keitaro remembered from a handful of earlier visits and as before he found himself wondering not only where all the excess room came from but also how the jungle wildlife was maintained. After a minute or two of following a winding path they came to an open area that contained a broad worktable and several piles of dismantled machinery. The carcass of a dismantled mecha-tama lay on the table, electronic components spilling out of its chest.

"I remember this!" Shinobu exclaimed suddenly, startling the rest of them. "It's one of the places she works on her inventions."

"So do you know where we are, Shinobu-chan?" Keitaro asked.

"Um, well," Shinobu blushed at the attention now focused on her, "I think she keeps her personal things further down the path. We might find something helpful if we keep going."

"I do not think that will be necessary," Motoko murmured. The swordswoman had drifted slightly apart from the others as she moved over to the worktable to examine something she'd found there.

"Huh? What do you mean . . . uh oh." Kitsune, who had been closest to Motoko, trailed off as she leaned over Motoko's shoulder and saw what she had been looking at.

"What is it?" Naru asked, coming over to join them with Keitaro and Shinobu in tow. Wordlessly, Motoko stood aside and gestured to what had caught her attention. They hadn't noticed at first, but one end of the worktable was completely clear of equipment. Rather, it was covered with newspaper clippings and magazine articles, though most of the space was consumed by a calendar opened to the current month. The calendar had been annotated in a language that none of them recognised, but two dates had been heavily outlined. Two things were immediately obvious to the Hinata Inn's tenants and manager.

One was that there were two full moons that month.

The other was that the second one was tonight.

Su nodded to herself in satisfaction.

"This will do," she murmured.

Su sat down in the small clearing, her skirt spreading out on the ground around her, and settled in to wait.

It would not be long now, she thought.

"What does it mean?" Shinobu plaintively wondered aloud.

After the discovery of the calendar they had decided not to push their luck - the further they went into Su's room the more likely it became that they would run into something that was highly dangerous, whether accident or design. The five of them had retreated from Su's room and gathered in the living room. They'd discussed their findings for the better part of an hour without coming to any conclusions, beyond the fact that Bad Things were probably about to happen.

"I am not certain, but I do not care for it," was Motoko's answer to Shinobu's question. "We do not truly understand what role the moon plays in Su's life, but it is significant. The occurrence of two full moons in one month obviously carries great import for her, but there is no way of knowing what."

"Yeah well, that doesn't really help, does it," Naru observed. None of them had any answer for her. Keitaro stood up with a sigh.

"I'm going outside for a breath of fresh air. Maybe it'll help clear my head."

The cool night air hit Keitaro with a refreshing jolt as he slid the back door open and stepped out onto the porch. For a moment he stood there and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of his back, before the clouds cleared and he got the shock of his life. High above Keitaro, hanging heavy in the sky over the Hinata Inn like the eye of some ancient god, was the full moon.

And it was shining with a brilliant blue light.

"Oh boy. Oh boy. Naru! Everyone! _GET OUT HERE!_"

Forever afterward Keitaro would be unable to explain the sense of foreboding that swept through him in the moment when he looked up and saw the blue moon. In later years he would reflect that the ultimate consequences of the event that the blue moon foreshadowed had been far more for the good than the bad. But in that instant he only knew that change was coming, change that would alter his life irrevocably.

Keitaro could hear the pounding of the girls' footsteps as they came running out of the Hinata Inn and crashed to a halt behind him, brought up short by the same phenomenon that had caught his attention. Kitsune spoke first.

"Hey, what's all the racket about . . . oh boy. That can't be good."

"My vision! This is what it foretold! But . . . what does this mean? What does this mean for Su?"

None of them had an answer for Motoko's question.

"Oh man," moaned Keitaro a moment later, "what do we do now?"

"Uh, Keitaro-" Kitsune said hesitantly

"We don't know where Su is or what's happening to her," Keitaro said grimly, ignoring Kitsune.

"Hey Keitaro if you'll just look-"

"Well we have to go looking for her!" Naru exclaimed.

"I know, I know, but where do we start look-"

"Everyone!" Kitsune yelled, her patience finally broken. Seeing that she had their attention, Kitsune continued in a tone of voice that was unusually hesitant for her.

"I don't think finding Su is the problem."

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Naru.

In response, Kitsune simply gestured behind them. The full moon, still glowing a brilliant blue, was now emitting a shaft of blue light that shone down into the depths of the forest that occupied the land behind the Hinata Inn. Kitsune had been the first to notice it because she'd been slightly less focused on panicking than the others. For a moment the Inn's remaining residents formed a frozen tableau as they goggled at the sight before Keitaro went running into the forest in the direction of the beam of light. After a moment of hesitation the girls ran after him.

"SU-CHAN! SU-CHAN WHERE ARE YOU?"

Keitaro stumbled madly through the forest, barely able to see with the onset of full night, his gaze fixed in the direction of where the column of blue light had seemed to hit the ground. He was dimly aware of the girls crashing through the forest behind him, yelling out for him to slow down, but their shouts barely registered. Su, like all the Inn's tenants, was his responsibility and he was as determined to solve this mystery about Su and her connection to the moon as he had been the first time.

Naru was cursing under her breath as she staggered after Keitaro. Prickly bushes had torn her tights and low branches whipped at her face in the darkness. She and the other girls had been following Keitaro for nearly half an hour when Naru ran head first into him from behind.

"Damn it Keitaro, what are you . . ." Naru trailed off as she saw what had caused Keitaro to stop dead in his tracks. Behind her the other girls stopped as well, halted by disbelief. They had come to a small, roughly circular clearing and there was no doubt that this was the place Su had gone. Su was floating nearly a metre off the ground, suspended in a column of blue light so bright it hurt the eyes as it blazed down into the centre of the clearing. Within the pillar of light Su's form was indistinct, her appearance obscured by a cloud of silver motes that danced around her body. As they watched the cloud gradually expanded and solidified, until Su was completely obscured from their sight. Then the cloud suddenly flared everything went white.

Moments later a powerful shockwave blasted them off their feet and into unconsciousness.

Keitaro, conditioned to endure harsh impacts by his time as the Hinata Inn's manager, was the first to awaken.

"Uhhhhhhhh." Keitaro groaned and shook his head groggily as he slowly sat up from his position on the forest floor. For a few seconds he was too disoriented to remember what had happened but as memory returned he bolted to his feet in shock, ignoring the dizziness he felt as he rose.

"SU! Are you there!? SU! SU!"

"Calm down Kei-kun. I'm fine."

Keitaro went still as the soft voice addressed him. Standing in the centre of the clearing was Su. A Su who was definitely in her adult form, he noticed, as she began to walk shakily toward him. Behind him Keitaro could hear Motoko and Naru beginning to wake up as Su came closer.

"What the . . ." Naru trailed off, having stood up just in time to see Su's adult form collapse into Keitaro's arms in a dead faint.

Author's Notes

Inspiration

The inspiration for this story comes from two lines in a story by Bugsy, where Su deliberately shifts into her adult form to flirt with Keitaro. For some reason that was enough to get me thinking about what would happen if Su were to change permanently into her adult form. The idea just sat around in my head for awhile before I read an excellent Ranma ½ Tenchi Muyo crossover fanfic (Heart's Healing by D.F Roeder/Sinom Bre) where Ranma winds up with Ryouko. In that story Tenchi is seduced by a fully fused Sasami/Tsunami, which gave me an insight into how this story might happen. Sasami/Tsunami's motives were just a subplot in that story but they provided me with a loose model for Su's motivations in this story. I also drew a little inspiration from an excellent fanfic by Donny Cheng that sort of pairs up Ranma and Miss Hinako in a very believable way - if you've read 'Thirty Days' you'll be able to detect its influence further on in this story.

Blue Moons

When I decided to start writing this story I did a little research on the moon. I learnt that colour changes and other weird stuff related to the moon are actually referred to as Transient Lunar Phenomena. Furthermore, when there are two full moons in a month (which can actually happen) the second moon is commonly known as a 'Blue' moon. When a blue tint does occur it's usually because of atmospheric contamination distorting the light that the moon reflects. Blue coloured moons have been witnessed after volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Normally a second full moon doesn't actually look any different from an ordinary full moon but for purely literary purposes I had it shining like a bright blue beacon. You can do stuff like that when you're the author. I also thought it was appropriate for the Love Hina universe given that Su's temporary changes are heralded by a bright red moon. These are also extremely rare in nature and are thought to be caused by gas pockets escaping from the moon's surface, though they also occur during a lunar eclipse.

Motoko's Meditation

In this fic I show Motoko as having a weak form of precognition when she meditates. The only justification I have for this is episode eight of the anime where Motoko enables all of the Hinata Inn's residents (herself included) to share the same dream while she is meditating. This sets a slight precedent in the canon for Motoko possessing some kind of psychic ability while in a meditative state, hence her ability in this story.

Timing

The story is set right at the end of volume nine of the manga, going into volume ten. That's about the latest point at which Keitaro and Naru's relationship isn't firmed up, since after that he goes on the archaeological dig with Seta and once he gets back the fuss with Kanako and the Inn's extension all leads to Naru finally admitting how she feels about Keitaro. Additionally, this isn't too long after Naru was unable to reciprocate Keitaro's declaration of love while he was in hospital. There are references in the story to events that only occurred in the anime timeline because I tend to defer to the anime where it and the manga overlap (I saw the anime first and there are still parts of it I like better plot wise, especially the way Shinobu is introduced). Clearly, events are going to diverge somewhat from the manga in this story.

Note: Chapter One was reloaded with minor revisions (mostly grammar) when Chapter Two was uploaded.


	2. Reactions

Once In A Blue Moon

Chapter 2 - Reactions

Keitaro stared down at Su's sleeping form and shook his head in disbelief. The foreign girl, no, woman, Keitaro corrected himself, was curled up on the couch in the Hinata's living room, sleeping the sleep of the utterly exhausted. She was too heavy now to be easily carried up the stairs and no-one wanted to wake her. Keitaro had no idea how he'd managed to carry her all the way back to the Inn in her adult form, especially with his leg so recently healed. Su's expression was tranquil, her elegant, exotic features calm and her pale blonde hair fanned out over the blanket covering her. For a moment he simply stood there watching her, struck once again by the beauty Su showed in her older form. The back of Naru's hand broke him out of his reverie.

"Stop staring you pervert!" Naru exclaimed, but her admonishment had no energy in it. It seemed that not even Naru's paranoia was strong enough to survive the draining effects of the day they'd all had, Keitaro noticed absently.

"What the hell do we do now?" Kitsune wondered, asking the question that was on all their minds.

She got no answer.

"Let's all just go to bed," Keitaro suggested at last. "It'll be easier to think about this after we've had some sleep."

"It has been an extremely long day," Motoko agreed. With one last look at Su she turned and walked out of the room.

One by one the other followed her, each of them letting their gaze linger on the young woman asleep on the couch. Shinobu adjusted the blanket covering Su before she left and Kitsune's expression was thoughtful as she left the room. Keitaro and Naru left together and parted when they reached the top of the stairs.

"What do you think is going to happen?" she asked him, just before they parted. Keitaro shrugged.

"I don't know," he answered simply and turned away, walking down the hall to his room.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh . . ." Su moaned, shifting uneasily on the couch as consciousness slowly returned to her. She sat up slowly, rubbing at her eyes as she pulled herself into a sitting position.

"So tired . . ." she murmured to herself, trying to remember what she might have been doing that had tired her so thoroughly. For a moment recollection eluded her, memories dancing just beyond her reach - before coming back in rush of information.

"Oh!" Su exclaimed softly, stiffening as she recalled exactly what her situation was. She glanced down at herself reflexively - and saw that her memories were accurate.

"I guess I'm all grown up," Su said softly, thinking out loud. "I suppose I'd better . . ." Su trailed off as she recalled - wincing mentally as she did - exactly how she'd behaved over the past week.

_Well, you knew it wouldn't be easy,_ she told herself.

Sounds of conversation and food being served reached her through the doorway and she decided there was no point in putting off the inevitable confrontation. Su stood up and walked over the doorway that connected the living room to the dining room. Moving hesitantly, she pushed the door open and peered into the room.

All movement stopped as the others noticed her presence. Motoko was the first to recover.

"Hello Su-chan," she greeted Su with an impressive degree of calm, "would you like some lunch?"

"It's lunchtime?" Su blinked in surprise.

"Uh-huh," said Keitaro, "you-slept-right-through-the-morning-and-we-didn't-want-to-wake-you-so-we-just-let-you-sleep." His words ran together in a burst of nervous energy as he tried to fill the awkward silence that had overtaken the room, but the attempt fell flat. It had been an extremely stressful morning, punctuated by uneasy silences and stilted conversation. Naru shot him a glare as the continuing silence after his brief verbal excess only emphasised the tension of the moment.

"I suppose I should explain what's going on," Su said quietly, wondering as she did exactly how much she could tell them. Amara would know, but she wasn't here. Apart from their probable reactions to some of the reasons for what had happened to her it was an intensely private thing. Not all the people of Molmol matured in the usual way, especially among the royal family, but Su had no desire to share the details of this with the others. Well . . . except for Keitaro, maybe, but certainly not now. She sat down at the end of the low table, paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. _Better to just get it out of the way_, Su decided.

"In Molmol, sometimes, this is how we grow up. When we're old enough we just . . . grow."

"Do you mean to say that this is a permanent change?" asked Motoko, her calm fraying audibly at the edges. Su swallowed nervously before replying.

"Yes." Her simple statement was greeted with absolute silence as the others processed the revelation.

"Isn't puberty meant to last, oh, five or six years," Kitsune asked in a tone of wry disbelief, breaking the hush that had overtaken the room.

"Normally," Su replied, smiling faintly. "But sometimes we just . . . skip it. I read something once about our distant ancestors having to reproduce quickly after natural disasters, but I don't really know about that."

"Why?" Naru asked. "I mean, why now?"

Su shrugged, and told her first lie as a woman.

"I don't know. It just . . . happens."

Naru looked at Su sceptically, but decided not to press the issue.

_I have no idea about this_, Naru reflected. _None of us do, really. Who knows how it happens._ She opened her mouth to ask Su another question, only to be interrupted by the sound of someone knocking loudly on the front door.

"I'll get that!" Keitaro exclaimed, jumping up and rushing out of the room in an unsubtle attempt to escape the tense situation.

"We should probably go see who it is," Kitsune commented a moment after Keitaro had left the room.

"That's a good idea," Naru agreed as she stood up, relieved at any distraction from their current circumstances. Judging by the speed with which the others joined her they felt the same way. They filed out of the room, Su bringing up the rear.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Keitaro called as he rushed down the hall towards the door. The knocking had resumed, even more loudly than before. Whoever was out there wasn't very patient, Keitaro thought.

"I'm here," he exclaimed as he opened the door, "what do you - Amara-san?"

"Hello Urashima-san," Su's older sister greeted him. Keitaro jerked slightly in surprise.

"Amara-san what are you - oh yeah, you said you were coming, didn't you? With everything that's been going on I completely forgot." Embarrassed, Keitaro avoided looking Amara in the eye and rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. Amara regarded him for a moment before speaking, her expression unreadable.

"I see . . ." she said slowly. "I take it Kaolla has already . . . changed." Keitaro gulped. Amara didn't sound angry exactly, but something about her tone suggested severe displeasure. Keitaro just wished he knew who the target of that displeasure was.

"Um . . . well . . . yeah." Keitaro paused for a moment, intensely uncomfortable, before blurting out the question he desperately wanted to ask.

"Amara-san, _what's going on?_ None of this makes any sense! Why did Su grow up like this? Why now? How is it even possible?"

"You're not the only one who wants to know that," came Kitsune's voice from behind Keitaro. The former ronin spun around in shock.

"What are you doing . . ." Keitaro trailed off as he saw that all the girls of the Hinata Inn were gathered in the hallway behind him, including Su. Behind him, Amara sighed heavily.

"This is very complicated, but I suppose I, I mean we," she amended herself with a sharp look at Su, "owe you all an explanation. If I may come inside?" she asked Keitaro dryly.

Keitaro nearly tripped over himself standing aside to make room for her to come in. Amara slipped past him and made her way through the group filling the hallway, but stopped dead when she came face-to-face with Su. For a moment the two stood looking at each other and something seemed to pass between them that none of the others understood. Then Su spoke.

"Big sister I'm sor-"

CRACK!

The sound of Amara's palm against Su's cheek rang out like a gunshot. The others stared in disbelief, unmoving, not daring to interfere in something they didn't understand, as Su brought a hand up to her cheek.

"Perhaps we should talk privately first," Amara said carefully, her voice strained, after a few tension-laden seconds had passed.

Su just nodded.

"So," said Amara after she and Su had settled themselves in Su's room, following, though they did not know it, the same path that Keitaro and the other girls had taken the night before, "here we are. Kaolla Su, what on earth made you think this was a good idea?"

Su squirmed on the bench formed out of an overgrown tree root and gnawed on her lower lip as she tried to figure out how to explain herself to her older sister. Amara sat opposite Su on a low hanging branch, willing to wait while Su gathered her thoughts. As she did so Amara looked around herself with mild interest. Su had done a credible job of recreating the conditions of Molmol's more tropical areas, though a natural tropical rainforest didn't come with convenient seating and drink dispensers built into tree trunks. Amara preferred not to think about how Su had managed to fit such a large slice of home into a single room - it gave her a headache - but understood that it had something to do with matter compression.

_But I shouldn't be distracting myself from the problem right in front of me_, Amara admonished herself, focusing again on Su's downcast face, _however much I might prefer to._

"Big sister, I'm sorry but-"

Amara gave her younger sister a look that conveyed deep frustration.

"You're sorry? Sorry!? The trouble with you, my sister, is that you never learned patience. If you'd just been willing to wait a couple of years-"

"It would have been too late!" was Su's impassioned response as she broke into Amara's escalating tirade. "If I'd waited she would have taken him! I couldn't risk it! Besides, once I realised how I felt I couldn't have stopped it if I'd wanted to, even if I decided I should! You know that. I can't help what I feel in my heart!"

With that Su slipped down to the mossy ground and wrapped her arms around herself like she child she had so recently been. With a sigh Amara got off her own perch and knelt down in front of her and leant forward to wrap her arms around her now sobbing sister.

"You love him that much," Amara said, her voice warmer than it had been. Her words were not a question.

Su didn't reply in words but Amara could feel Su's head moving up and down against her shoulder as she nodded. The two sisters simply sat there for several minutes in companionable silence before Su hesitantly began to speak, her voice shaky from crying.

"He's so special, big sister. He's kind and, and gentle and sweet and he never judges people. He just . . . accepts them. He likes me, too. Where else was I going to find someone like that? And she doesn't appreciate him! She doesn't! But I do! Even before, I, I thought he was really nice. And the first time I changed with the moon I understood . . . I understood what he meant to me, or at least what he could come to mean to me. I tried to give him hints because I knew I wouldn't remember afterwards. Wouldn't remember what it felt like. I mean, I like big brother and all, but not like that, and anyway all he's worried about really is the kingdom and . . ."

Su trailed off as she felt he sister stiffen and realisation kicked in.

"Oh sister, I didn't mean it like that. You know, he's just, well, a workaholic, I guess."

For a moment Amara said nothing and Su worried that she'd unintentionally wounded her sister before Amara looked at her with a wicked glint of humour in her eyes.

"Actually" Amara told her "I've been making some progress in that area."

"Sister?"

Amara snickered at Su's shocked look.

"Don't be so surprised. It took a while, but I got him to notice me eventually. You could say, little sister, that I know what you're going through. So if you want my advice you better not insult me!"

This last sentence was delivered in a voice that suggested considerable amusement on Amara's part.

"Sorry big sister. I really didn't-"

"I know you didn't" Amara replied, cutting off Su's embarrassed apology before she could finish "so don't worry about it. But that doesn't change the situation here," she continued with a sigh.

"I know," Su replied in a small voice. "But if you and big brother are-"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Kaolla Su," Amara reprimanded her. "You still have responsibilities as a princess of Molmol."

"I _know_ that," Su replied. "But it's not the same as when big brother wanted to marry me, is it?"

"I didn't say that," Amara replied. "But the situation is still complex. Are you even sure he has feelings for you, let alone whether or not he'd be willing to live in Molmol?"

"_Sister_," Su exclaimed, squirming in embarrassment. "It's not _like _that."

"Well what is it like?" Amara asked wryly. Su went very still at her question, and Amara waited in silence for her younger sister's answer.

"I don't know," Su whispered at last. "I don't know if I have a chance, but I'm going to find out. I have to at least try."

"So what exactly is going on here?"

Haruka had seen Amara heading up to the Hinata Inn and had decided it might be a good idea to pay her nephew a visit. She'd come in to find everyone except Su - and Amara, who she assumed was there - sitting around in a state of shock. Her laconic question had the same impact as a grenade going off in a minefield.

"Aunt Haruka, Su's-"

"The weirdest thing-"

"Something most strange-"

"It's awful! Su chan's-"

"Hey, Hey HEY!" Haruka exclaimed. "One at a time!"

Keitaro and the girls subsided, though they looked distinctly unsettled.

"Okay. Could one of you tell me what's going on here?"

Silence.

Then, slowly, every eye in the room turned toward Keitaro. With a resigned sigh the Hinata Inn's manager began to tell the story of the previous day's events.

"And then I carried her home and we put her on the couch," said Keitaro, nearly an hour later. It had taken him that long, with interruptions and amendments from the girls, to tell Haruka all about recent events.

"And now Amara-san is here, but we have no idea why, and she _slapped_ Su . . ." Haruka nodded as Keitaro trailed off in confusion.

"Huh," she muttered to herself, working her customary cigarette around in her mouth as she pondered the situation.

"Hello again," came Amara's voice as she entered the room, instantly drawing every eye to her. "Now that I've discussed . . . things . . . with Su, I suppose it's time to try and explain what has happened, as much as that is possible. But first," and Amara paused for a moment to fix them all with a penetrating stare, "I want your word that you will never discuss this with anyone else, or within the hearing of anyone not in this room. Well?"

Whether it was the severity of Amara's tone or their own instincts they all realised that the older princess was extremely serious about her request. One by one they nodded their agreement, sensing the importance of the promise they were making.

"Good. The change that my sister has gone through is, as far as we can determine, a leftover survival trait from our distant ancestors."

"So Su spoke truly," Motoko murmured to herself.

"I beg you pardon?" Amara asked, overhearing the comment.

"Um, you see, Su said that it happened because your people used to be, um, underpopulated and . . ." Keitaro trailed off, again, as Amara turned her inscrutable gaze on him. A small part of his mind reflected that he hadn't been finishing many of his sentences lately.

"That is essentially correct," Amara said coolly. "Our people were once able to accelerate their growth, though we do not really understand how. Molmol has always had a small population and the change is apparently a leftover evolutionary survival measure meant to counteract rapid depopulation."

"Okay," said Kitsune drawled, scepticism colouring her voice, "if that's the case, how does it _happen?_"

_That_, Amara thought, _is extremely private and I do not think you understand how rude your question is. Nonetheless, I do not feel particularly guilty about lying to you_.

"We are not really sure," Amara told her.

_By magic, of course_.

"I know from Keitaro that Su had the typical period of . . . call it hibernation . . . prior to her transformation. I expect you noticed some erratic behaviour on her part during that time. This is typical." Amara noticed with a trace of amusement that all the girls reacted to that piece of information with varying degrees of relief, scepticism and interest. "That allowed her to build up the necessary levels of stamina."

_Have you noticed that I am not mentioning what she needed that stamina for? She needed it to endure the change, not to fuel it, though I don't intend to tell you that._

"So that's why she was eating and sleeping all the time!" Naru exclaimed.

"More or less," Amara agreed.

_You may draw whatever conclusions you like, so long as they are the wrong ones_.

"And you do not know why this still happens?" asked Motoko.

"Not beyond what I have already told you," Amara replied evenly. "So far as we can tell it happens at random."

_I rather doubt that you will believe that for long, but so long as you do not press the issue it doesn't much matter. I do not think I will mention that the trigger, in the most basic terms, is the desire to mate. Never mind that the actual emotions which trigger the physical change are a good deal more complex than that - I doubt such a revelation would go over well._

"Right," said Kitsune, her voice the same dubious drawl it had been before. Of all the Hinata Inn's residents she considered herself the most cynical. And she wasn't buying Amara's explanation.

_That girl's got one heck of a poker face_, Kitsune observed mentally, _and I should know! What are you hiding, __Amara__Su__?_

Kitsune flicked a considering glance at Su and was not surprised when the other girl lowered her eyes. She doubted any of the others had realised exactly what Su's transformation meant, but she had her suspicions.

"I, hey, wait a minute!" Keitaro exclaimed suddenly, "why did you hit Su? Why did you do that?" Amara had already held the attention of everyone in the room, but at Keitaro's question their focus redoubled.

"I was . . . angry," Amara admitted. "It was an overreaction, for which I am sorry."

"But why?" Shinobu asked, her voice quavering. She had been silent so far, seemingly too unsure to contribute to the conversation, but now she plucked up her nerve.

_I want to know why you hit my friend - and I want to know what's happening to Su. What's really happening. I don't understand this! _Such were Shinobu's thoughts as she asked her question again.

"Why were you angry?"

Amara sighed internally. This was why Su's determination to study overseas frustrated her so much. These were her family's ancient secrets and there was no reason at all why she should have to tell these people. Not that she had anything against them especially, but this was _private_. But now that Su had gone and changed

"Shock, I suppose," she replied, in a tone of voice that discouraged further discussion of the subject.

The conversation had petered out after that, Shinobu remembered, as everyone dispersed to ponder things for themselves. Su and Amara had gone back to her room, Motoko was training and Kitsune had gone out to pick up some sake.

_Kitsune really does drink too much_, Shinobu thought as she struggled with a recalcitrant sheet that kept slipping out of her fingers when she tried to peg it to the line. And she was hanging out the laundry. Shinobu sometimes thought that the only certainty at the Hinata Inn was that there would always be chores to be done.

_I don't mind though. It's kind of peaceful, being by myself and something to do while I think. I wish I knew how Su was. I can't imagine how she feels right now. Is she alright? Amara didn't really explain why this happened - did Su _want _it to happen? It must be pretty scary. I know if something like this happened to me I'd have no idea how to deal with it. Still, maybe it's different for Su. After all, it's not like this hasn't happened before, even if that was a little different. Back then she wanted to . . . to . . . no._

_That couldn't be it._

_Could it?_

"Hey, Keitaro?"

Keitaro looked up from the archaeology text he'd been studying to see Naru's head poking down through the hole that connected their rooms. He couldn't help but notice how cute she looked with her bangs hanging down in front of her eyes.

"Ah, Narusegawa," he exclaimed, a little surprised that she was looking in on him like this, "what is it?"

"I wanted to talk to you," she said brusquely as she pulled herself through the hole into his room, flipping over to land on the floor.

"What do you think - hey!" she exclaimed as she saw that Keitaro was desperately trying to block his nose with the bottom of his t-shirt and realised that her flip had briefly let him see up her skirt.

"Pervert!" WHAM! One punch from Naru laid him out on the floor, his head hitting the wall as he went down.

"I'm sorry Narusegawa!" Keitaro exclaimed a moment later as he pulled himself back up to a sitting position. "I swear I didn't see anything!"

"You better not have you creep!" Naru growled, waving a clenched fist under his nose before she sat down in front of him, suddenly calm again.

_At least her temper doesn't last as long as it used to_, Keitaro thought ruefully as he rubbed the bump already forming on his head.

"Ah, so, what did you want to talk about?" he asked Naru.

"Oh. Well . . ." Naru hesitated, unsure how to phrase what was on her mind, when Keitaro surprised her by finishing the sentence for her.

"It's about Su?" he asked her in a tone of voice that suggested he already knew the answer to the question.

"Yes," Naru admitted ruefully. Then she frowned as a thought struck her. "Hey, how did you know what I was going to ask?"

"Well, it was kind of obvious," Keitaro told her, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke, "after all, what else would you want to talk about?"

"Oh yeah. I guess even you could figure that out. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about it."

"Okay."

"Well?" Naru asked, frustration leaking into her tone.

"What?" Keitaro asked in return, confused by the question.

"I want to know what's going on!" Naru shouted at him. "Why is this happening!?"

"How should I know?" Keitaro replied in honest confusion. "I don't know what's going on either."

"So why did Su grow up, huh?" Naru asked him sceptically.

"I don't know, Narusegawa. It's just . . . this is all so weird - and I'm really worried about Su."

"Oh you are, are you?"

"Yes," Keitaro replied, a little exasperated by Naru's repeated probing.

Naru looked closely at Keitaro and saw nothing but honest confusion and concern in his face.

_You're being an idiot Naru_, she told herself. _Quit bugging him about it already_.

"Okay," she said quietly. Then she got up and walked out of Keitaro's room.

_What on earth was that about? _Keitaro wondered as he turned back to his book. He tried to go back to reading it again, but try as he might he was unable to concentrate. With a muttered curse he tossed _Identifying Pottery and Weapons of the Ancient Terrapin Orders of the South Pacific_ aside and threw himself backwards onto his futon with a sigh. He needed to think.

_Why was Naru being so weird about Su's change? And what's all that about, anyway? Amara didn't really explain much. Is Su alright? Is her brother going to show up and try to force her to marry him again?_

Keitaro lay staring up at the ceiling, worried thoughts going round and round in his head, as he tried to figure out if the Hinata Inn's most unusual resident was in trouble. He was the manager after all, and it was his job to help any way he could.

Motoko swung mechanically at the training dummy in front of her, striving to empty her head of conscious thought. She'd learnt long ago that burying herself in training was the ideal way to avoid dealing with things she couldn't . . . had trouble dealing with. Her period of greatest improvement had come not long after her sister's marriage. Training in the Shinmei Ryu had been a welcome distraction then, as now. Thinking about what had happened to Su was troubling for many reasons, not the least of them being that none of them had any idea what this meant for the girl. Motoko had always regarded Su with a somewhat maternal affection, coming to regard herself as a kind of surrogate older sister to the girl, especially when Su had gotten into the habit of sometimes sleeping in Motoko's room.

_And now this happens. Apart from anything else, what will Keitaro do now? I saw how he looked at Su the last time she was in her adult form. I just know he'll do something perverted if Naru-sempai and I do not keep an eye on him. And Su may be older physically but she is still a child - she has to be protected from him!_

Motoko was started out of the rhythm she'd attained with her weapon by the sound of someone scrambling over the railing that lined the Hinata Inn's rooftop terrace. She spun in place, but relaxed her guard when she saw who it was.

"Kitsune! What are you doing up here?" Motoko asked, her tone turning slightly accusing when she noticed the sake bottle clutched in Kitsune's left hand.

"Hey, I just came up to have a little drink," Kitsune replied as she clambered over the railing, waving the sake bottle she was holding in Motoko's direction. "It's nice and private up here - usually - and you know how our manager gets if he sees me making with the alcohol. Wanna join me?"

"I think not," Motoko returned stiffly.

"Your loss," Kitsune said with a shrug. "So what are you doing up here anyway?"

"Practicing, of course," Motoko said, gesturing to the training dummy behind her, "isn't it obvious?"

"That isn't what I meant," Kitsune replied as she sat down, her back propped against the railing, and took a swig from her bottle of sake. "You usually practice in the morning and it's almost dinner time - I guess I meant _why_ are you up here?"

"I just wanted to get some extra practice in," Motoko told her, congratulating herself slightly on keeping her voice steady. Kitsune could be oddly perceptive sometimes, but Motoko didn't want to discuss her feelings with anyone right now.

"Sure you did," murmured Kitsune. "Sure you did. And it has nothing at all to do with the fact that all of a sudden Su's gone from a kid to a very good looking young woman either."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Motoko snapped, turning back to the training dummy and readying herself to resume her exercises.

"Right, I forgot," came Kitsune's voice from behind her. "Everybody in this place is in a permanent state of denial." The self proclaimed fox girl sounded as though she didn't know whether to be amused or frustrated. "That's why I'm not talking to Naru right now. It's pointless talking to that girl when she doesn't want to admit something." With that as a parting line Kitsune stood up and walked away from Motoko, down the stairs and back into the Inn, leaving the swordswoman's thoughts whirling.

"Hey, big sister, can I ask you something?"

Amara and Su had returned to Su's room which, Amara admitted to herself, was a fairly pleasant place to be. Su was sitting on a swollen tree branch overhanging the river that flowed lazily through her private jungle, dangling her feet in the cool water. Amara was on the other side of the river, lying down on a patch of moss with her eyes closed and trying to think through all the ramifications of what Su had done. She gotten as far as _god knows how mother will react_ before hitting a brick wall.

"What is it, Kaolla?"

"Do you think the old stories are true?" Amara opened her eyes and turned her head in Su's direction, wondering if this was about what she thought it was.

"What old stories?" she asked.

"You know - the ones about Alamara and Rennik."

"Ah. _Those_ stories," Amara replied, her suspicions confirmed.

"Yeah. Do you think it's true?"

Amara sighed.

"I don't know. It's just a legend now, you know."

"Well yeah . . . but still."

Amara sighed again, this time accompanying the gesture with a roll of her eyes. Her younger sister - and Kaolla _was_ still younger than her - was clearly going to be even worse post-puberty than she'd feared. But why not tell her what she wanted to hear? If nothing else, it was a good story.

"Many, many years ago, in the days before our people kept a written history, there lived a young girl named Alamara," Amara began in the slightly lecturing tone of one who is telling a very familiar story. "Alamara was the youngest daughter of a wealthy trader and his wife - her mother - was so busy worrying about her six older sisters that Alamara often went unnoticed. They were flighty, scatterbrained girls while Alamara was generous, helpful and level headed, never giving her mother a moments trouble as she grew up. And being the kind of person she was Alamara didn't mind too much that neither of her parents ever seemed to have any time for her. But there were times when she felt terribly lonely. Occasionally, late at night after everyone else had gone to sleep, she would sneak out of the house and go down to the river to skim stones across the water, wishing for someone who would love her best of all. Then one day her father arranged a marriage between his oldest daughter and a young man from a neighbouring village. He felt it was time she settled down and started a family of her own - and the young man had good prospects. The daughter, whose name was Damaris, was not particularly happy about this. She liked her freedom, liked being able to flirt with all the young men in the village, liked living at home where servants did most of the drudge work and her mother ran the house. She moaned and wailed about the arrangement but her father would not be moved. So Damaris decided she would destroy the intended wedding herself. When the young man, a scholar named Rennik, called on Damaris for the first time she was horrible to him. Damaris was rude, mean and behaved disgustingly. Despite this Rennik was polite, kind and attentive to Damaris. If he found her behaviour odd or offensive he certainly didn't show it. In fact he was a perfect gentleman to everyone in her family - including Alamara."

Amara paused for a moment to catch her breath and remember the rest of the story, noticing as she did so that Su was listening raptly. She smiled briefly before continuing.

"Damaris was so busy thinking about how much she wanted to get rid of Rennik that she never took the time to notice all his good qualities. He was kind, decent, generous, understanding, friendly and optimistic. But while she might not have noticed these things, Alamara certainly had. Rennik was the first person she'd ever known who really noticed her, and it didn't take long for her to fall deeply in love with him. Yet Alamara knew it was hopeless, for even though Rennik showed her kindness he saw her as a child rather than a woman. Now when Alamara snuck out late at night it was Rennik and Rennik's love that she wished for.

And one night her wishes were answered."

"By a goddess, right!?" Su jumped in eagerly. "A goddess came and-"

"Who's telling this story, Kaolla?" Amara asked pointedly, interrupting her sister in turn. Su stopped speaking abruptly and Amara continued.

"One night, when Alamara was at the riverbank, a strange glow appeared in the water. She watched with amazement as a ball of light floated out of the river and into the air, forming into the shape of a beautiful woman as it did so. Alamara had no idea what this meant, but she knew she was in the presence of a great being and she bowed before it. And then the being spoke.

'Arise Alamara, daughter of Sammis and Mialla,' she said, 'for I have come to grant you a boon. I am the spirit of rivers and streams, oceans and seas, of all the water that runs through the land, and often have I heard you speak of that which you have told to no-one else.'

'You, you have?' Alamara said, blushing with embarrassment.

'Yes,' the river spirit replied with a smile, 'and because you have entrusted your secrets to me and no-one else I will provide you with the means to have that which you desire. But remember - you will still have to fight for what you want.'

'I don't understand.' The spirit smiled again before she responded.

'You will, Alamara. For now you need know only this: My gift will come whenever you visit this river in the moonlight and last till the sun shines again.'

And with that the spirit vanished, leaving Alamara gaping in astonishment. After a while she returned home and the next day she was not even sure if what had happened had been real or a dream. But she remembered the spirit's words. Rennik was due to pay another courting visit that day, and though Damaris' heart was still hardened against him her father's resolve to see her wed had not wavered. Rennik visited and he was as courteous and charming as ever. Alamara overhead his telling her father that he had taken up lodgings in the village inn for the time being because it was easier than travelling back and forth from his home.

That night Alamara snuck out of the house after everyone had gone to sleep and went down to the river. At first nothing seemed to happen but suddenly the moon came out from behind a cloud and Alamara found herself standing in the moonlight. Then she changed. She felt a tingling over her whole body and everything felt strangely different. For a moment Alamara didn't know what had changed until she caught sight of her reflection in the river and stared in disbelief. She was older. Where she expected to see the image of a young girl of twelve there was instead the reflection of an attractive young girl of eighteen. Alamara couldn't believe it, but after a few moments she started to understand the meaning of the river spirit's words and realised what she had meant. Alamara went home and huddled in her bed, for she could hardly walk about as she was in nothing but the shift she had gone to bed in, knowing that the change would be gone in the morning. Her head full of thoughts and ideas that she hardly slept at all. That day Alamara borrowed some of her other sisters' old clothes and after she had done all her chores she hid in the attic and went to work with sewing needle and thread. When she went down to the river that evening she carried with her clothes that would fit her older self. Just as before, when the moonlight struck Alamara the river spirit's magic made her older. She changed into the clothes she had brought with her and made her way towards the inn where Rennik was staying, her heart beating so hard she thought it would jump out of her chest. Alamara was just turning onto the street on which the inn was located when she ran straight into Rennik. She stumbled back but he caught her before she could fall. She thanked him and he asked the name of the young woman who wandered recklessly around the village at night. Alamara told him that her name was Ramaala and that she liked to go for walks at night to look at the night sky. Rennik thought her answer interesting and struck up a conversation with her. Ramaala did not say much about herself but they wandered around the village for some time talking about many different things. Rennik found himself becoming fasciated with this mysterious and beautiful young woman. Eventually Ramaala told him that it was time for her to return home, though Rennik made her promise to see him again later in the week before she left.

For months Alamara kept up the pretence of being Ramaala while Rennik's courtship of her eldest sister went nowhere. Damaris had actually begun to warm to Rennik near the end of that time but by then he had finally grown tired of her behaviour, especially as he'd grown closer to Ramaala. They had walked and talked under the starlit sky many times and Rennik knew that he was falling on love with her. One day he went to Alamara's father and told him that he could not honourably marry his daughter, for another had taken his heart. Sammis was dumbfounded and after he got over his shock he yelled at Rennik to get out of his house. In his heart of hearts Sammis knew that it was Damaris who had destroyed the marriage he had arranged for her. Pride had kept him from admitting it in Rennik's presence. Over the next few days Alamara's house was not a happy place. Both Sammis and Mialla were furious with their daughter over her behaviour and Damaris was miserable because Rennik had left just when she had finally begun to see the good in him. Struck by guilt at the pain she had caused Alamara resolved that she would never again make use of the gift given to her by the river spirit. However, only a few days passed before she saw Rennik when she was walking back from the market after buying some flour for her mother. In her guilt Alamara tried to avoid him but he saw her and asked her to give his deepest apologies to her sister and her parents. She agreed and was about to hurry away when it struck her how miserable Rennik looked. Alamara couldn't help but ask him what was wrong. For a moment it seemed as though he would not answer her. Then Rennik spoke.

'The woman I love has vanished,' he told her, 'and never did I have even the chance to tell her how I feel. My heart tells me that she felt the same as I, yet now she is gone. I would have given anything to be with her.' Rennik looked at Alamara with a sad smile before continuing. 'Surely it is no sin to be happy?' he asked her, before turning to walk away. Giving in to a sudden impulse, Alamara called out after him.

'If you go down to the river tonight and wait for the moon to shine down on you, you will see your Ramaala again,' she told him, before running back home, leaving a flabbergasted Rennik staring after her.

Alamara snuck out of the house that night, as she had so many times before, and went down to the riverside. Hiding in the bushes, she waited until Rennik appeared before she showed herself. He gasped in astonishment, but before he could say anything the moonlight struck Alamara and the transformation overtook her. Rennik could hardly believe what he was seeing.

'Ramaala?' he asked in astonishment. Alamara smiled at him.

'No,' she said softly, 'I'm Alamara.' Then she told Rennik everything that had happened. How she had fallen in love with him, the gift the river spirit had given her, the way she'd pretended to be Ramaala to win his heart and the guilt she felt for what she'd done.

'But why do you feel guilty?' Rennik asked her after she had finished speaking. By then he was sure that this was the same woman he had fallen in love with.

'Because I deceived you,' said Alamara, avoiding his gaze. 'Because I came between you and my older sister. And because my parents are miserable that the match they arranged will not happen. How can we be together now?'

'I love you,' Rennik told her. 'That's all that really matters. We'll deal with the rest somehow.' Then he placed the fingers of one hand under her chin and turned her face towards his to kiss her sweetly under the night sky.

'I see you have used my gift well, Alamara' a rippling voice chuckled suddenly, startling the lovers out of their embrace. Alamara and Rennik were both shocked to see the river spirit which Alamara had told Rennik of floating over the river in front of them.

'Now that you have found that which you sought, it is time to decide what you will do to keep it,' the spirit told Alamara.

'I don't understand,' Alamara replied after she had gathered her wits.

'It is simple enough,' the spirit replied. 'If you wish it, I can make the change permanent and you can be with Rennik forever.' The river spirit paused for a moment before continuing. 'Do you wish it?' she asked.

Alamara nodded.

In the morning Alamara returned home, Rennik at her side. When she knocked at the door it was opened by a worried looking Mialla.

'I'm sorry but I really can't . . .' Alamara's mother began, then trailed off as she took a good look at who was at the door. Her youngest daughter had gone missing during the night yet here was a woman who could have been Alamara - if Alamara had been more than half a decade older.

'Oh my . . .'

'May we come in mother?' Alamara asked with the trace of a smile. Moving dazedly Mialla let them both in. The conversation that followed was long and complicated and filled with many shouts and exclamations of disbelief, but it did not take too long for Alamara to persuade her family of her identity. After she had explained everything Alamara told her father of her and Rennik's intent to marry. To say that the poor man was surprised would be the greatest of understatements. Nonetheless, he soon came to see the possibilities of such an arrangement and there was no denying the strength of the love Alamara and Rennik felt for one another.

And so, in time, the two were wed."

"And they lived happily ever after!" Su carolled gleefully the moment Amara had finished speaking.

"I suppose," Amara conceded wearily, a little tired from telling the story, "but this isn't some foreign fairy tale. It's a legend of our people, Kaolla, and you shouldn't forget that."

"I won't," Su replied contritely. "And I know what the lesson is too!"

_Here we go_, Amara thought wearily.

"There is no wrong in fighting with all your heart for that which you desire," Su said softly, her voice revealing quiet determination and resolve.

Naru tossed and turned on her futon trying futilely to get to sleep. Dinner had been a strained affair. The Hinata Inn's tenants were an adaptable bunch - they had to be to avoid going insane, considering some of the things that went on in their lives - but Su's transformation exceeded the usual weirdness level by a significant amount.

_It's never been permanent before_, Naru reflected as she gazed up at her ceiling. _Normally, things get weird for a bit and then they settle down again. If anything changes, it always changes back again. But . . . not this time._

Naru shivered at the thought. The thing was . . . well . . . she was a little scared of Su. It sounded silly, she knew. Su, no matter what age she was, was hardly the kind of person to inspire fear - although Keitaro might disagree when he was being chased by one of her mecha-tamas. But late at night, alone in her room, Naru was capable of admitting to herself that she hated change. Hated it. And this was change with a capital C. Not only would nothing ever be the same, but there was no way of knowing _how_ things would change. Thoughts still churning, Naru eventually fell into unconsciousness.

And dreamed.

Little Naru was playing with Mu-chan in the sandbox at the playground near the big house. Mu-chan was her best friend, well, along with Kei-kun anyway. Today Kei-kun had gone somewhere with his mummy so it was just the two of them. Mu-chan was helping her pat the sand into place on the side of the tower they were making when she saw something wonderful!

"Wow!" Naru exclaimed, "is that a liddo-kun doll!?"

"Uh-huh," Mu-chan agreed with a smile, "my mummy got him for me. Do you wanna see?"

"Yeah!" said Naru enthusiastically.

"Here you go," said Mu-chan as she handed the doll over. Naru immediately took the stuffed toy in her arms and squeezed it tight against her.

"You must really like liddo-kun!" Mu-chan giggled as she watched her friend hugging the liddo-kun as hard as she could.

"Uh-huh," Naru agreed, "it's my most favourite show!" Mutsumi looked on with pleasure as Na-chan continued to hug her liddo-kun with a huge smile on her face. She loved to see her friends happy. Then she had a great idea.

"Do you want to have him, Na-chan?" she asked. For a moment Naru couldn't believe what she was hearing. Then her smile got even bigger, if that was possible.

"Do you mean that Mu-chan!?" she asked excitedly.

"Yup," said Mu-chan. "He's yours now! Take good care of him!"

"I will," Naru promised fervently, holding the liddo-kun even tighter. Then she frowned. All of a sudden the liddo-kun doll felt strange. She looked down and . . .

"Keitaro!" Naru exclaimed in amazement. But it wasn't Keitaro at all - it was a life size Keitaro doll!

_He looks so real_, Naru thought within her dream. _But he can't be . . . he's got a tag sticking out of his neck!_

Naru reached out to take a look at the tag and blinked in surprise when she read the words printed on it: Property of Otohime Mutsumi.

_Huh? But this isn't the lidd-kun it's_ - Naru's train of thought was derailed as the Keitaro doll was plucked out of her lap! She looked up in astonishment to see a big girl with dark skin and pale blonde hair holding Keitaro up, much higher than she could reach.

"Hey!" Naru cried, "that's mine! Give it back you meanie!"

"No it isn't," the girl replied in an oddly melodious voice. Then she looked at the tag sprouting from Keitaro's neck, just as Naru had a moment ago. "Hmmph," she snorted, "looks like he was only on loan to you anyway. Well, that's easily fixed!" With that the girl pulled out a huge pair of silver scissors from somewhere and snipped off the tag. "That fixes that!" she declared, her voice rich with satisfaction. Then she turned and walked away. Naru tried to run after her but her legs were too short to keep up and the strange girl soon vanished from her sight, Keitaro slung over her shoulder.

"_No!_" Naru called out plaintively. "_Bring him back! He's mine!_" she cried out before she collapsed to the ground, sobbing miserably.

Naru did not remember the dream when she awoke.

Author's Notes

Su's Characterisation

This was tricky, because it's hard to say exactly what Su would act like as a full grown adult. My conception of Su as an adult is that she'd have basically the same interests and life philosophy, but with a more mature understanding of relationships and a certain amount of restraint in some of the areas where she is usually fairly unrestrained. If she seems particularly subdued in this chapter it's because she's adapting to being an adult and dealing with the others' reactions - including Amara. Consequently, she's a little cautious.

Remember that I mentioned a couple of stories by other authors in the notes for chapter one? Well, this is the chapter that particularly shows the influence of their respective works. If you've read the stories I mentioned I'm sure you can see where it is.

Kitsune's Characterisation

I always figured Kitsune was a lot more perceptive than she let on. Her ability to manipulate and instigate, as well as her insight into the characters of some of the other girls are suggestive of a certain amount of insight. Additionally there are various clues in the manga that there's more to Kitsune than meets the eye. Other than that, she's often more of an observer to than a participant in events at the Hinata Inn, which makes her the ideal character to show a little bit of foresight regarding what's happening.

Su's Change

The nature of the story sort of compels me to offer some kind of practical explanation for Su's change, for two reasons. First, it's unbelievable that the other inhabitants of the Hinata Inn wouldn't demand some kind of explanation. Second, basing this story on Su's age-shifting compels me to flesh out that part of Su's heritage. This was a problem for me, because trying to underpin fantasy with logic is a sure fire way to bog a story down in silly, contrived details (the made up technobabble that people criticise Star Trek for is a good example). In both the manga and the anime no explanation is ever offered for _how_ Su's change happens, or what the underlying reason for it is. And that works, because explaining it isn't the point. So I came up with a supposed practical reason for Su's changing to exist - and then made that a cover story that Amara uses to cover up a legend. I rather like the legend, actually.

Reader Responses

First, this was an unusually quick update for me. Writing this chapter, there were several days where I wrote more than a thousand words - quite a bit faster than I usually write. This story is my main focus for the time being but I warn you - don't expect future updates quite so quickly.

I like alternate pairings. To me, the great thing about fanfiction is that you get to explore all the 'what ifs' that crop up in any story. Why write a Keitaro/Naru story when you can just read the manga? (unless you've got a particular idea you want to explore).

And to the person who asked for a 'serious' Keitaro/Haruka story . . . well. I was going to say that such a thing was flat out impossible, because - putting aside the whole incest issue for a moment - there's no basis at all to write such a story, not a scrap of evidence that Keitaro and Haruka are anything other than nephew and aunt. But I like a challenge and I have an imagination that just doesn't know when to leave things alone. So I got to thinking. The upshot of all that thinking is that I'm now working on a very unusual little oneshot, for which I hope not to get flamed to death. And I'm actually kinda pissed at that reviewer for giving me the idea in the first place. But I figure that if people can write Kanako/Shinobu stories, I'll probably get away with it.


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